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Songwriter extraordinaire Johnny Mercer
(1909–1976) hit his stride with his film work,
which began in the 1930s and continued
into the 1970s, earning him an astonishing
19 Academy Award® nominations. On the
occasion of his 100th birthday, TCM presents
a rich sampling of Mercer’s film output
including the four Oscar®-winning songs
that feature his lyrics: “On the Atchison,
Evening” from Here Comes the Groom (1951),
“Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s
(1961) and the title song from Days of Wine
and Roses (1962).
We also proudly present the TCM original
documentary Johnny Mercer: The Dream’s on Me
(2009), co-produced by Clint Eastwood and
featuring interviews with Tony Bennett, Julie
Andrews, Blake Edwards, John Williams and
others. On Mercer’s actual birthday, November
18, comes a 24-hour marathon of movies to which
he contributed lyrics and/or music. (He was
also a composer, a singer who recorded his
own songs and a co-founder of Capitol
Records.) The evening will be co-hosted by
Robert Kimball, editor of the new book The
Complete Lyrics of Johnny Mercer.
Mercer had no formal musical training but
was heavily influenced by jazz and the blues,
both in his native Savannah, Georgia, and in
New York City, where he moved at age 19. In
1935 he relocated to Hollywood, where his
folksy yet deceptively sophisticated lyrics fi t
perfectly into such films as Old Man Rhythm
(1935), Hollywood Hotel (1937), Blues in the
Night (1941) and The Fleet’s In (1942).
Throughout his illustrious career, Mercer
collaborated with such top composers as
Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Arlen, Jerome
Kern, Harry Warren, Richard Whiting and
Henry Mancini. He wrote the lyrics for
complete musical film scores including Seven
Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and two based
on Broadway productions for which he also
composed the music: Top Banana (1954) and
Li’l Abner (1959).
 
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TCM Imports - November Schedule
Travel to other parts of the world without leaving your home in our festival of international classics that includes Black Orpheus (1959), set in Rio, and the French comedy, Mon Oncle (1958), starring Jacques Tati.
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